The third is playing downhill towards the water as a par 4 of 412/376 that plays shorter than the yardage. The difficulty in the hole is twofold: first is a series of continuous bunkers down the right side followed by trees with the second being the green is surrounded left, back and right by a continuous bunker. The bunker around the green is pressed right against it and the green has a little nob to the left that makes for a tiny target. I liked the hole. The sky was pretty dark at this point but I could still see that we had gotten closer to the ocean. On a clear day the view must be incredible. I did notice the houses on the right side of the fairway mainly because two in our group struck balls that hit the roofs.

Four is a par 4 of 402/382 and this is the closest you will get to the water. It is a relatively straight downhill hole with a single small bunker at the center front of the green. The trees are once again dense on both sides of the fairway. The green is long and skinny with chocolate drop mounds off the left side.

You start to play away from the sea and ultimately are going back uphill to the clubhouse as you step onto the fifth hole, a par 4 of 402/382. The fairway seemed wider here and the trees were more cleared out on the right than they had been on previous holes. We started to play “ready” golf as the rain came. There is a rock pile on the right that comes into play on the tee shot, another smaller rock pile closer to the green. There is good bunkering on this hole which has a plateau green. It is the 3 index and deserves to be.

The second par 5 at 507/491 uphill with a tee shot having to carry a short gorge. You want to stay on the left side as the fairway is tilted a bit. However, there is quite a lot of mounding down the left side so it can kick a ball hit slightly left into an unplayable position. There are four bunkers fronting the right side of the green with is two-tiered with a vertical spine and is raised above the fairway.

Seven is a par 4 of 414/380 yards that plays as a dogleg right. The dense trees are very noticeable on either side of the fairway which has a series of rock formations down the right side and a single bunker left front of the green. This hole played uphill a lot. The green felt smaller due to a large mound to the right side. I liked this hole for its visuals.

The second par 3 comes at the eighth at 183/164 to a slightly uphill green. There is another rock outcropping but it does not come into play. There are two bunkers to the left side of the green.

My favorite hole which we played in a matter of minutes as we were completely soaked at this point came next at the 420/411 par 4 ninth. It is a dogleg left that curves around a valley of vegetation on the left side of the fairway. I was later told it is not a valley but a drop off in the fairway leading to a cliff that has trees and vegetation on it. In any event, the hole had two bunkers left and one right to also consider on the tee shot. I took a triple bogey here as I could not hold a club and rushed the putts but it looked to be a very nice finish to the front side.

Two hours later we went back out for the back side. The fairways had drained reasonably well and the rain had stopped but it was very windy, 40 mph with gusts higher. The rain would eventually return as we played 14.

I hated the tenth hole, a par 5 of 621/598 (we moved up a set of tees for the back nine) that is a horseshoe left that only the green brings an end to the dogleg. I imagine on a drier day that the downhill nature of this hole would shorten the yardage but that was not the case for us. It is cleared out a bit on the left side but the dense trees return nearly all the way down the right side to the green. I remember some fairway bunkers left for the tee shot but what I remember more is the eight bunkers as you approach the green. Then for some reason there is a tree on the right side way too near the green. I thought this hole to be ridiculous.

Eleven is a par 3 of 160/149 and after playing a long silly hole I felt a bit of relief. I also thought this was the prettiest par 3 on the golf course as it is completely surrounded by sand and is very lovely to look at from the tee.

The shortest par 4 is the twelfth which is 342/327 yards and plays uphill. It is well bunkered right and left on the fairway with two bunkers at the green. The green sits at the base of a hill. One guy in our group went long behind the green and faced a very difficult downhill chip as the back and left side of the greens have swales in them that he had to navigate from the deeper, wet grass. I liked this hole.

Thirteen is a par 4 of 427/384 yards that plays sideways to the other holes but it straight up a steep hill so it felt like it played 50 yards longer (on a normal weather day). At this point bogeys felt like pars and double bogies were acceptable scores but triples became more of the norm due to the force of the wind. The green sits in a saddle.

The fourteenth is a downhill par 3 of 164/148 with a small pond pressed right to the green with a similar small sliver of rocks in between and a large bunker behind the green. I felt like I had played this hole before (the second). The rain had returned to add to the wind.

Fifteen is a big dogleg right as a par 4 of 353/345 yards. I suppose this is a driveable par 4 such is the severity of the dogleg. To drive it one would have to drive over a drop-off of vegetation. The fairway has a ridge that creates an upper and lower shelf. The green is steeply sloped back to front to a ridiculous angle and is also pretty small. I did not care for the hole.

The final par 5 comes next and it is another log one of 567/539. It requires a long carry over wasteland trying to stay left. None of make the carry in the wind and rain. I can’t comment much on this hole as we were now speeding up. I did notice a nice bunker to the right of the green but that was after disliking the tilt in the fairway. It was at this point I began to realize I did not like the land that was used for the back nine – too hilly, too sloped, too much quirkiness required to fit a good golf course on this property.

The seventeenth, a slightly downhill par 3 of 161/144 is meant to be the signature hole but we barely saw it. It is surrounded by bunkers but for me I did not think it was as nice as the sixteenth based on what I could see. But once again it seemed to me to be too similar to the eleventh.

Eighteen is a par 4 of 433/393 that plays uphill and felt like it was a little more cleared out. There are numerous bunkers around the green. The green is overly tilted and is silly.

If one is in Jamaica, then this course is worth playing. On a clear day you will love the views. It is difficult mainly due to the density of the trees and a few silly greens. I did not like that too many of the par 3’s felt the same, both in yardage and in look. The par 5’s on the back nine are too long. The land is not as good on the back nine. I think the architects did about as well as they could with this property.